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> There are copious news reports from the time that state the charges filed against him carried those maximum penalties Yes, and those reports fail to accurate
by ryanlol 6y ago
> There are copious news reports from the time that state the charges filed against him carried those maximum penalties
Yes, and those reports fail to accurately communicate the possible range of punishments that Swartz could’ve received.
At the time the prosecutors claimed that Swartz could’ve faced at most 7 years. A very harsh, but unlikely sentence.
- wtallis 6y ago> At the time the prosecutors claimed that Swartz could’ve faced at most 7 years. From what I can find, "at the time" here means at the time of the plea bargain offer, not at the time he was charged, or at the time they added more charges.
- ryanlol 6y agoAre you saying that the sentencing guidelines changed during the trial? Suggesting that Swartz was threatened with a 35-year sentence requires some extraordinary mental gymnastics.
- ionwake 6y agoI’m not from the US but I remember reading at the time that the max sentence was 50y
- javagram 6y agoNews articles and press releases from the DOJ often include a theoretical maximum sentence that is unconnected with how a judge will actually assign a sentence. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Federal_Sentencing_Guidelines https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Federal_Sentenci... A defendant with competent legal counsel (as Aaron Swartz had) would have been informed by them of the likely actual range of the sentence if found guilty.
- ryanlol 6y agoYes, that claim was repeated by many. Doesn’t make it true.